The Adventures of a Christian Mom, Grandma and cancer surviver!

How will you use your “extra” day? It’s snowing big-time here in Michigan (2-4 inches expected) so that kind of side-lines my plans for today. I ‘was’ going to go ‘window’ shopping at Kohl’s as a $25 gift certificate is kind of burning a hole in my pocket but, depending on the weather, that might be a project for another day. There’s always my trusty knitting/crochet on the afghans (or) reading: am currently reading an autobiography of Marie Curie (Nobel Prize for the discovery of Radium). I love reading about famous people and their lives. Today was an opportunity to explain to youngest son (13) about Leap Year, as he’d never heard of it. I rather thought that public school would mention it, but at least in his classes it wasn’t.

I’m thinking that, since this IS an ‘extra’ day, I’m going to treat it like a GIFT: think I’ll write a few letters, send a few thank you cards, perhaps make a phone call to a friend I haven’t heard from in awhile – in general, treat it like an unexpected ‘free time’, for others. (I might even bake a special dessert for the family…’just because’).

Today is one of those ‘casserole’ days: a mix of varied things. You see the lovely amaryllis plant that I bought for my ‘belated’ Christmas gift to myself; it is in full bloom in the photo. My mother used to grow them for Christmas and I spotted them at ACO hardware (of all places) after Christmas and decided I’d give it a try (I definitely DON’T have a green thumb); turns out they’re very easy to grow! It produced 5 beautiful blossoms.

Was talking to “Momma” today on the phone (it’s her 73rd birthday!) and we got to chatting about embroidery. I used to teach it to homeschoolers a few years ago. We were talking of designs and I mentioned that I created a wallhanging to demonstrate that my students could, indeed, draw their own designs and execute them using the stitches we’d been learning. This was, probably, 2 years ago now and I quickly discovered that when you put down projects and don’t continue working on them, you lose your finesse/prowess/quality of craftmanship! Just for the fun of it, I thought I’d share this one with you: it’s eventually going to be a floral heart with the Bible verse: “Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10 embroidered in the center. I’m not sure, at this time, just when I’ll pick this one up again and finish it (still working on afghans) but hopefully, someday I’ll once again have the patience and time to see this through to completion. Do any of you have multiple projects hanging around that you haven’t taken the time to finish? I know I sure do!

(click on photos to enlarge)

Today is sunny, 22 degrees with a light dusting of snow over the top of tons of ice; pretty but definitely not fun to walk or drive on. The good thing is: SPRING IS COMING! (when? not sure yet, but it’s in the offing!!!)

Today is ‘turn in’ day for our youngest son’s ‘house project’ for school. If you remember, the requirements were to build a ‘house’ out of a cardboard box, having four rooms; furnish those rooms with furniture you built, paper or paint each room a different color, and then wire each room to contain two lights, using Christmas tree bulbs that are powered by one 9 volt battery. This electrical system is to be directed to four individual switches, one for each set of lights. We completed the task rather late last night (11 p.m.- half hour past son’s bedtime, but hey! we got it done!) Since this is his first year in public school and he is still labeled as ‘the new kid’ to most, when the assignment was given, they were to work in teams; one person doing the furniture, one doing the wiring and drawing the electrical schematics, and one to build the house, itself – no one wanted to work with him. He asked the teacher if he could do the whole thing himself and have his parents help; the teacher said yes. With my husband’s expertise in all things electrical and my help with miniature house & furniture building, the task was completed: four rooms, 2 bedrooms, a living room, and a study (my son’s choice of kinds of rooms). The furniture, for the most part is built out of cardboard or styrofoam, using cloth for upholstry and wallpaper samples for wallpaper, flooring and ceiling coverings.

It was an interesting project. At the last minute, after all the wiring, fixing, etc. we discovered that those tiny little Christmas tree bulbs can really suck the juice out of a 9 V. battery very quickly! (you will note that the lights are NOT on in the photos). Son had an extra 9V. in his pocket, just in case the whole thing failed at the wrong time. I, personally, think it came out just fine and am anxious to see the final grade and his reactions to the other kid’s and their ‘team efforts’.

Just a quick post; it’s a nice day out-semi-sunny, about 6-7 inches of snow on the ground (from yesterday’s massive snowfall) and about 33 degrees (perfect snow-fall temp). In a few minutes I’ll be sorting afghan squares to put together more lovely afghans; am currently working on #58 and I now have enough squares for a good 4-5 more afghans, so I’ll be plenty busy in the next week. I don’t mind-I like the ‘choosing and sewing together’ part best; for me this is relaxing work. As to the ‘sharing’ part, thought I’d add a photo of my 1 1/2 yr. old grandson who’s just learned that stacking blocks can be fun! (he hasn’t quite figured out that stacking plastic, wooden AND a soft cloth block don’t exactly make for a tower that stays up!…time to move out the cloth block, I think!) As you can tell, I’m enjoying being a grandmother and watching all the new discoveries such as speech: the list of known words is growing, especially the “What does a ? say” part…like “What does a pig say?”

Just got off the phone with my dear friend “Momma” and it’s always good to connect with great friends. Last night found me IM’ing with another good friend, Dar; even though we’re all miles apart, it’s nice to know that we can still stay close through these medias.

Well, enough of this sharing-next will find me assisting middle son in his school project (remember the “build a 4 room house, furnish it and wire each room with 2 lights”?) We’re up to the Build the Furniture part; that’s MY realm and I love giving it a good try! Maybe if I think of it, I’ll photograph the ‘end results’ before he takes it to school! THAT’S a good idea! I’ve been bemoaning the fact that we never took pictures of a medieval castle that the whole family built when oldest son was in a private school. We did the whole thing out of sugar cubes-must have used a good 200+, painted them, made all of the castle parts, like a working drawbridge, parapets, a moat (complete with drowning man!), 2 armies of fighting soldiers, men on the tower with pots of boiling oil, etc. It was great fun, a LOT of work, but he got an A++ for the efforts. The teachers were in awe of the detail work; that made us happy. (I love the little details!).